Teen pays for DDoS on school, faces felony charges

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Don’t feel like taking your statewide standardized online tests? Why fake being sick when you could do what one Iowa teen did: pay a few bucks to have someone DDoS your school for an entire week.

That may not be the actual motivation behind the attack, but it was one of the side effects. Disruptions to the West Ada School District’s internet service cause numerous students to repeatedly lose their progress — which meant they had to re-take the tests several times during the week-long cybersiege. Having to plod through standardized tests is bad enough, but being forced to take the same one over and over ought to be a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

The attack was eventually traced back to an IP address reportedly used by a 17-year-old West Ada high school student. He’s already been suspended and may be expelled, and will be facing felony charges in Idaho. Authorities have also stated that he could face up to 180 days in a juvenile detention center and may be slapped with federal charges as well.

Investigation of a second attack that took place shortly after this one has already begun. It was reportedly initiated by an area middle school student.

A school district spokesperson says they’re confident that their IT staff are capable of dealing with any future attacks, should there be any other students who have the knowledge to launch one. Presumably that means “know how to use Google,” because it’s not exactly hard to find a DDoS-for-hire — sorry, “load testing” service — on the internet these days.